In A Flash
by Tracie1
Summary: Another backtothefanfic LJ community challenge. This story takes place during the "Back To Normal" scene in "BTTF Part 2" and is told from the POVs of Marty and Doc, respectively.
1. Default Chapter

**In A Flash**

**Chapter One**

**Marty's Side of the Story**

Tentatively, Marty touched the lit match to the almanac. The flame caught immediately, melting the plastic book cover. Marty turned away, briefly, as if he couldn't bear the reminder of the horrible 1985A that he had created by buying the book in the first place.

It made him sick to know that his own greediness had helped Biff rise to such power. What could he have he been thinking? Why didn't he listen to Doc? Why couldn't he have left well enough alone? He resolved then and there to never again let the quest for wealth dictate his actions. The almanac was proof that the fallout from such thinking wasn't worth the consequence.

As the flames warped and curled the almanac in the pail, Marty heaved a sigh of relief. Marty flipped the matchbook over in his hand, to give a last glance at his never-to-be-stepfather's empire before tossing the effigy of evil into the fire with the almanac. However, a peculiarity in the matchbook cover caught his eye. At first, Marty thought his eyes were playing tricks on him and drew the matchbook closer for a better look. His breath quickened and he watched agape as all traces of Biff's Pleasure Paradise vanished, leaving the words "Auto Detailing" in their wake.

Could it be? Marty yanked the newspaper article from his back pocket and shook it open. His breath caught in his throat and he watched with widening eyes as the headline changed from "George McFly Murdered" to "George McFly Honored".

Marty hurriedly scrambled to his feet. He yanked his walkie talkie from his pocket and turned it on. He couldn't wait to tell Doc the news.

"Doc! Doc, the newspaper changed! Doc, my father's alive!" he exclaimed joyfully. "That means that everything's back to normal, right?"

Before even giving his friend a chance to answer Marty rushed on. "That means Jennifer's okay and Einie's okay, right?" he asked yelling over the lightening. It was hard for Marty to even hear his own voice over the storm.

"That's right, Marty! It's the ripple effect!" Doc's voice exclaimed from the walkie talkie. "The future is back! Now, let's go home!"

It was over now. Marty couldn't describe the relief he felt now that he knew he would be returning to the 1985 that he had left. Marty couldn't wait to put this sorry mess of a weekend behind him. Hell, maybe he could even salvage some time at the lake with Jennifer after all. "Right, Doc! Let's get our asses back to the fut--"

A rogue bolt of lightning cut him short. The bolt cut a path between him and the DeLorean almost as if it had their names on it. Marty threw up his arm to shield his face from the sparks that hurled his way and he hurled himself out of the bolt's path as it whizzed by him into the tree that he had just been standing next to. Marty jumped to his feet and looked at the severed tree branch that now lay burning on the ground. He shakily regarded the near miss and radioed Doc to check on him.

"Doc! Doc, are you okay?" Marty called frantically.

Marty was relieved to hear his friend's voice. "That was a close one, Marty. I almost bought the farm."

"Well, be careful! You don't want to get struck by lightning!" Marty warned. He had no idea why he was saying such a thing, but the close call had left him with a bad feeling.

It was a twisted prophecy. No sooner had the words had left Marty's lips than he saw a bolt of lightning envelope Doc and the DeLorean. The unmistakable sonic boom of the DeLorean's temporal jump, coupled with utter surprise, knocked Marty off his feet for a second time.

In an instant, Marty was alone. There was an eerie silence in the air as the commotion from the lightning storm ceased. Marty stood up his blue eyes scanning the dark, murky sky and was astonished to see nothing there, but billowing wisps of smoke.

"Doc," he called into the darkness.

There was no reply. The cloudy sky remained still. Doc couldn't leave him here. He had to come back for him.

"Doc?" he said, his hope fading with every second. Futilely, he tried to reach Doc via the walkie talkie as though the device were a link to oblivion.

"Doc. Come in, Doc," he said softly, pressing the "Talk" button. He was greeted by dead air, but he pressed on. "Doc, do you read me? Do you read me, Doc? Come in. Doc!"

The walkie-talkie remained dead, but a fluttering sound from above answered his call. Marty watched as the formless object spiraled downward toward him and fell to the ground at his feet. Dread and panic seized him as he realized what it was.

It was the pennant rope that Doc had used to rescue him from Biff in the tunnel. He picked it up and as Marty viewed the burnt, frayed rope, he felt all of his hope ebb from him.

"Oh, no!" Tears formed in his eyes and a muted sob escaped his lips. What had become of his friend? Was he alive or dead? How would he get home? Fat tears started to spill onto his cheeks, mixing with the cold rain.

"He's gone. The Doc's gone!"

Marty stood in the road, horrified at the revelation. The lightning had swiped everything from him in a flash.


	2. chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**Doc's Side of the Story**

Doc watched from his bird's eye seat in the DeLorean as Marty burned the sports almanac as per his instructions. He couldn't wait until the troublesome object was out of their lives for good. Knowing that the book could never again fall into the wrong hands was a great relief to Doc. He, for one, never wanted to again experience such a Hell as 1985A.

Doc's body continued to pilot the DeLorean, trying to avoid the lightening that flashed all around him, but his mind was lost in thought. The ordeal they had been through to get the almanac out of Biff's hands had only strengthened Doc's conviction that the time machine must be destroyed once he and Marty returned home. Doc felt like a fool for even thinking that the world was ready to utilize time travel. Marty's recklessness in buying the almanac had proved to Doc that humankind was not ready to handle such a profound responsibility.

"Don't be a hypocrite, Brown. This mess was six of one and a half dozen of the other," he chided himself for the umpteenth time. "Marty only acted on thoughts that you voiced intent of doing yourself. If you hadn't planted the seeds of gambling in his head by wanting to use time travel to bet on the World Series and gain substantial wealth, then Marty would not have been inclined to buy that almanac to do the same."

Marty's voice emanated from Doc's walkie talkie, breaking Doc from his reverie. "Doc! Doc, the newspaper changed! Doc, my father's alive! That means that everything's back to normal, right?"

Doc grabbed the newspaper from where it lay on the passenger seat and watched triumphantly as the image of him in a straight jacket about to be committed morphed into an image of him receiving some kind of an award. This mess was over.

"Mission accomplished," he whispered.

"That means Jennifer's okay and Einie's okay, right?" Marty voice exclaimed through the static.

"That's right, Marty," Doc answered reassuringly, yelling over the lightning storm that crackled and boomed just outside the flying DeLorean. "It's the ripple effect! The future is back! Now, let's go home!" The thought of home had never sounded so good. Doc never thought he would be so eager to return to his mundane life in 1985 and that dilapidated garage. This weekend had forever cured his yearning to see what mysteries the space-time continuum held. He would now be content to be at home and appreciate what he had there.

"Right, Doc. Let's get our asses back to the fut--!"

At that moment, a bolt of lightning ripped close by him, striking a tree on the ground. The close call shaved about ten years off Doc's life expectancy. He clutched his heart as his walkie talkie crackled to life.

"Doc! Doc, are you okay?" Marty's voice yelled.

With a shaky hand, Doc picked up the walkie talkie and pressed the "Talk" button. "That was a close one, Marty," Doc said, his nerves still on edge. "I almost bought the farm." Doc dropped the walkie talkie on the passenger seat and returned his full attention to steering the DeLorean away from the plenitude of lightning bolts in the sky. His daydreaming had nearly done him in.

As if his friend could read his thoughts he heard Marty's voice emanate from the walkie talkie. "Well, be careful! You don't want to get struck by lightning!"

No sooner had Doc heard Marty say the words, than he was enveloped in the brilliant white of a lightning bolt. Doc could feel the DeLorean begin to fishtail and realized that the hover circuits must have been fried, the terror of which was only overridden by the panic that the time circuits had been activated. He was helpless as the lightning engulfed him, zapping to the time that his short-circuiting time circuits had randomly picked. A brief glance at the time circuits told him that he would get to realize his dream of seeing the Old West, after all. He chuckled ruefully. He figured that he had about two seconds of viewing time before the DeLorean would nosedive to the ground. Whether or not he would live through the experience was another matter.

His last thought was of Marty. Somehow, he would have to help his young friend get home. He couldn't leave Marty stranded in 1955.

Doc felt despair as he was ripped through the space-time continuum. The lightening ripped away his friend and his own hope of returning home in a flash.


End file.
